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*Roman's POV*
Walking up the long flight of stairs, Mr. Calaway and I get to the second floor and I look around once more. The floors continued to be marble, and if you stood right in front of where the chandelier in the foyer was, you could see the entire foyer. Resting my hands on the railing, I took everything in and just stood there in awe.
"I take it, you like the house." A deep voice says from beside me.
"Yeah, this place is really nice." I tell him.
Silence went on for a few moments. "Let's go to my office."
"Okay." I said as I walked behind him.
We walked into a room that with plush carpets. There was a mahogany table in the middle of the room with a large chair behind it. On the desk, was a computer with a wireless keyboard and a wireless mouse and a few picture frames as well as some that were on the walls. Bookshelves lined the walls as well as some drawings that looked like they were made by his young daughters and possible grandchildren.
"You could have a seat." He says after closing the door behind him. I take a seat across from him and my nervousness kick in again after it had calmed down a bit. "When you came here to Texas, how'd you meet Dean?"
"I was sitting outside of the restaurant he worked in." I tell him as I look down. "I was there all night because I didn't have anywhere else to go, so I was thinking about what to do next. About where I could go."
He looks at me as he sits back in his chair. "You were homeless?"
"Yes, sir." I tell him softly. "I came here without a plan and without anywhere to go."
"For how long?" He asked.
I look up at him. "About eight months. When I applied to Houston High, I had been living with Dean for the last few weeks and continued living with him until I was able to find a place of my own."
"Does Cassandra know?" The man asks.
"Yes. I thought it was something that she needed to have known about me." I tell him.
"Let me guess, that didn't change her mind about you." He says.
I nod. "No, it didn't." Looking down at my hands, silence creeps in. "I want something long-term with her, in case you're wondering what my intentions are. I want to be able to make her happy and give her everything that she wants and needs. I don't know how I got her, but I'm more than proud that I am. Cassandra has my heart and I don't want to lose her. She's the best thing to ever happen to me."
"I know you're from a wrestling family." He says. "I know you just said that you want something long-term with Cassandra, but I want to be sure that it's not because of who her dad is. I don't want her to end up with a guy that, when he finds out what I do for a living, that he'll want to be with her for the fame that comes along with me and the character that I play on television. I've been in the wrestling business for over 20 years and I've seen people that only want someone for the fame. The money. I don't want someone like that for my daughter. I want someone who genuinely wants to be with her. Cassandra chose to be a teacher and I see why as I'm sure you do."
"Sir, I'm falling in love with your daughter." I tell him. "My feelings for her started before I knew that you're her dad and when I learned that she's your daughter, it didn't change my feelings or my intentions when it comes to her and our relationship. I'm falling in love with a woman who came along and showed me an opportunity at making my life better without even knowing what I had been through in the last eight months before we met. A woman who has a heart of gold and who shows it when she's at the soup kitchen helping out others in need. I respect you, sir. I always have and I always will. But I'm falling in love with Cassandra. One day, when I was little, one of my dad's friends asked me if I believed in magic. I told him 'no' and he said to me, 'you will when you see her.' For some reason, I sure as hell believe that he was right, the moment I saw her."
Mr. Calaway sat back in his chair and had a light in his eyes. "Cassandra's an adult and I know that she can take care of herself. But she's still my daughter and I'll still do anything to protect her. I saw tonight, the way you look at her. As if she's a gift from heaven. As if she's the best thing in this world. I've never seen anybody look at her like that. With such passion and desire. With love. I knew before you even said anything that you could already be in love with her. Show me that you're finally the one guy in her life that'll be different. That'll treat her the way she deserves to be treated."
Another half an hour passes by with us just talking before we make our way back downstairs, to join everyone. I make my way to Cassandra after finding her in the kitchen, with a cup of water. I suddenly feel calm and my nervousness is forgotten about as soon as I see her.
"Roman." She says with a smile. I couldn't help but give her a smile of my own as I take her in for a hug after she puts her water down. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah, it's good." I say, wrapping my arms around her waist and nuzzling her neck. She giggles softly and I give her a kiss before pulling away. I think about my conversation with her father and how things went. It's a lot to process, but I'm glad it happened.
"Dad wasn't too tough on you, was he?" She asked, looking up at me. "I'm really sorry if he was."
I give her another kiss and continue to hold her in my arms. "Baby, it's okay. Your dad, he really loves you and he's really protective. He wants to make sure I'm a good guy. I understand, why's being tough."
"Yeah." Cassandra says softly before resting her head on my chest. It felt perfect having her in my arms and I didn't want to let her go.
We went into the living room and finished the night with her family and ended up playing some games before leaving. I keep Cassandra's hand in mine as we make our way back to her apartment, though there was something on my mind that her dad had bought up in our conversation. She picked up on my silence and just her being near me spoke to me.
"Can I ask why you're so quiet?" She asks me when we walk up the stairs to her apartment.
"I'm just thinking about getting in contact with my dad again." I tell her as we walk in. "I don't know how to go about doing it, it feels like forever since we last spoke. Talking with your dad tonight and seeing how close your family is, makes me miss my dad. And my mom."
"Is that something that you want to do? Getting in contact with them again?" She asks, when we go to her bedroom.
Without hesitation, I nod. "Yes. I think I'm going to ask Jimmy and Jey for their numbers, in case they changed it since I left. When I'm finally ready to call them, I'll call."
"I'll be here for you when you're ready to do that." Cassandra says, gently pulling me to her.
"Thanks." I say with a smile, as I kiss her deeply.
Picking her up, I carry her to the bed and broke the kiss to lay her down. Hovering over her, we kiss again and I feel her hands on each side of my face as we continue to kiss. Reluctantly pulling away, I hear her let out a sigh.
"I want you so badly." I whisper in her ear.
"Then why do you stop, every time?" She asks, barely above a whisper of her own.
I pull back and see her eyes searing mine. Her green eyes shine over, though she quickly blinks it away before I see anything else.
"I don't want to make you feel like I'm rushing you into it." I tell her.
"You're not. Why do you think I never stop you?" Cassandra as me as she moves from under me and sits up. Running her fingers through her hair, she looks over at me. "I'm just going to watch some television. You want to watch, too?"
Realizing the mood was over, and probably for the rest of the night, I agreed and watched some television with her. It wasn't until after midnight where I decided to go home when Cassandra wanted to go to bed.
*Cassandra's POV*
"What's wrong?" Kaitlyn and Samantha ask as we have a girls day out, getting manicures and pedicures after coming from spending the majority of the day at the beach before going to lunch afterwards. "You've been really quiet the last few days."
"I'm okay." I simply say, as I watch the woman doing my toes as the three of us sat on our chairs for our pedicures.
"Are you sure?" Samantha asks. "Did something happen between you and Roman?"
I shake my head. "Nothing happened. It's just one of those days when I just want to be quiet."
"Alright." I hear them say before not saying anything else before they went into their own conversations.
Truth is, my overthinking has been driving me crazy and I couldn't help it. After the way the night ended when Roman and I had dinner with my family, thoughts started coming into my mind that he may not have wanted me and I hated thinking that, because he hasn't given me a reason to think otherwise and I felt stupid for feeling that way. I was just looking forward to being with my little sister tomorrow, and though Roman was going to come along to spend the day with us, I just wanted to have that reassurance that he wanted me and in more ways than one. Taking out my phone, I look for Roman's number and decided to call him. It has been a few days since we last saw each other and though we've talked on the phone, I thought it would be best to do it in person.
"Hey, baby." Roman says, with a smile in his voice.
"Hi." I say with a soft smile of my own. "What are you up to?"
"Just watching some t.v with Dean. I was thinking about you." He replies.
I smiled. "Yeah? I've been thinking about you, too. I was wondering, though, if you could come over, later."
"Yeah, I'll come over. Does 8 o'clock sound good?" Roman asks.
"That sounds good." I tell him, seeing the girls give me a knowing look and me hiding my face. After a few minutes, we hang up and I go back to paying attention to the nail polish that's going on my toes. Twirling my hair around my finger, I started overthinking again. It made me glad that I asked Roman to come over, but I'm worried that I may come across as needy or demanding and I didn't want to push him away.
That night, I hear a knock on the door and when I look through the peephole, I see that it's Roman standing on the other side. Opening the door, I see him wearing his normal type of wear that consisted of a t-shirt and jeans with his hair in a bun, while I dressed in comfortable shorts and a sleeveless shirt. I walked around with slippers that showed my pedicure. He came in with a bag from the Spanish restaurant and gave me a kiss before I went to the kitchen to get something to drink for the both of us while he took out the food and set up the table. When we both sat down, I gave him a kiss on the cheek and saw that smile of his that I loved so much.
"I've missed you, today." He says before taking a bite of his fried plantains. "Did you have a good time with the girls?"
"Yeah, we went to the beach and then we went to lunch before going to get our nails and feet done." I said, showing him both. "And I missed you, too. How did you and Dean spend your day?"
"We went to the gym and then we went to lunch." He said. "We didn't really do much after that, except just sitting around."
I laughed softly. "I think you'd be okay with that as long as you're with someone you care about."
"You're right. And I don't mind lazy days every once in a while." He says with a chuckle. "I haven't seen you that much all week, though."
"My dad said that he and Michelle are going to leave a little earlier than they had planned to, because of the weather. If you want, I can pick you up." I tell him.
"You can come pick me up, I don't mind. Is your dad still okay with me coming over? I mean, I know he told me it was okay, but I want to make sure." He says.
"Yeah, he's okay with it." I said with a smile. After we finished dinner, we went to the living room and sat on the couch to watch some television.
"Are you sure you're okay, baby?" He asks, wrapping his arm around my shoulders when I curled up next to him on the couch after putting in a movie. "You've been really quiet the last few days when we talk, and you've seemed pretty distant. Did I do something wrong?"
I play with the bottom of his shirt when I lay my head on his chest. "I don't want you to think I'm being all needy or something."
"Why would I think that?" Roman asks.
Feeling a lump in my throat, I tried to blink back the tears that wanted to surface. "Ever since the last time you were here, I can't stop overthinking."
"About what?" He asks, cupping my chin so that I could look up at him. Concern filling his eyes.
"That you don't want me as much as I want you." I whisper to him, with tears reaching the brim of my eyes. "I want you in more ways than one and I feel like you don't want me."
"Why would you think I don't want you?" Roman asks. "Is it because of what happened after we came back from dinner with your family?"
When I didn't say anything, I quickly looked down again and felt a tear stream down my face before he cupped my face in his hands as he wipes away my tear. "Cassandra, why didn't you say anything?"
"Because I feel stupid for thinking that you don't when you haven't given me a reason to think that." I tell him as another tear runs down my cheek. "But I can't help it. Every time, you stop yourself, it makes me feel like you don't want to take that step with me and in turn, makes me feel like you don't want that with me. I didn't want you to worry."
"And me always stopping, doesn't help, does it?" Roman asks.
My bottom lip trembles, more tears spill over. "I like it because I know that you do it with good intentions and I know that you care about me. I don't have the best track record when it comes to guys. The last one never made sure that I knew how he felt about me, let alone that he wanted me. I had to watch him lose interest in me and nothing I did changed that and I'm scared that the same thing will happen all over again."
"Cass." He whispers as he wipes my tears with his fingers. Roman then kisses the trails left behind on my face from the tears and pulls me close. "I didn't know that it made you feel like that."
"I don't want you to feel bad, because you've been an amazing guy to me." I tell him. "I can't help it. I' m sorry."
Roman leans back and gently gets me on his lap. "You don't have to be sorry, baby. If anything, I'm glad you told me. I don't want you to ever feel like I don't want you, because I do. Trust me, I do. I just thought it was good if we didn't jump right into it."
"And it is." I tell him as he continues to wipe away my tears. "It was just overthinking that made me feel like this and I hate it because I don't want it to push you away."
"It won't, baby." Roman says as he gets my hair out of my face as he sits up. "Know that you have me for the long run. We're stuck with each other."
I feel my lips wanting to form a smile. Instead, I sniffle and wipe my face before he takes me into his arms as he leans back. I dig my face into his neck and feel a few more warm tears run down my face. Roman helps me sit up and takes my face in his hands again before he kisses my tears.
"Don't cry, baby." He whispers softly. "I'll show you how much I want you, I promise."
"I want it to be because you want to. Not because I said something." I tell him.
"Believe me, I want to." He says. "I'll show you."
I lay back in his arms and nuzzle his neck, before placing my head near his chest. Hearing the beat of his heart, I somehow managed to calm down. The television was forgotten about, as was whatever was on it. All I cared about right, now was being in the arms of the man that I was falling for more and more each day. Taking the hint, he stayed showering me with small kisses, occasionally playing with my hair and whispered a few sweet words in my ear. When the time came for him to go home, he held my hands when he turned to face me before opening the door.
"Tomorrow, I'm going to make you smile and laugh." He tells me. "And your little sister can join in and help me out. What do you say?"
"Yeah?" I ask, with a smile.
Roman takes me in his arms again before kissing my nose. "Yes. Just the three of us."
"I look forward to that." I tell him before his lips capture mine for a kiss.
The next day...
Being at my dad's house, Roman and I finish up with cleaning up as Michelle and my dad made sure they had everything they needed. When my dad came back into the kitchen, he had Kaia in his arms.
"We're going to go now." He said.
"Okay. Do you need me to take you to the airport?" I asked.
"No, that's fine. Steve's going to take us. You just relax and spend some time with this little cutie. You're going to be good for your sister and for Roman while we're gone, right?"
"Yes." Kaia replied with a big smile on her face.
"Steve's here." Michelle said when she came into the kitchen. "Are you ready to go?"
Putting Kaia down, she walks over to Roman and smiles up at him before walking over to me. I held her hand as we followed my dad and Michelle outside and to the driveway where the man, who was a family friend, was standing.
"Good morning, Cassandra." Steve said, who I had come to know because of always seeing him with my dad when I would go with him to his shows. He's a hall of famer who's known as Stone Cold Steven Austin.
"Good morning." I said with a smile before we share a hug.
He looks down and smiles when he sees Kaia holding on to my hand. "Good morning, pretty lady, how you doing?"
"Hi." She says as she giggles before going behind me and poking her head as he chuckles.
"We'll see you when we get home." My dad says, giving me a hug. "I love you, darlin'."
"I love you, too." I tell him, kissing him on the cheek. "Say bye to mommy and daddy, Kaia."
She pokes her head again from behind my legs and runs up to him before he scoops her up. "Daddy. Mama."
I smile as they interact with her before putting her down. My dad shakes Roman's hand and he thanks my dad for allowing him to come over.
"Take care of my girls." He tells Roman.
"I will." He replies.
We spent a few more minutes talking before they finally left. After watching them drive off with their friend, Roman and I went back inside with my sister in my arms. We went to the living room and turned on the television so that she could watch some cartoons.
"Are you feeling better after last night?" Roman asked me softly.
"Yeah and I wanted to say sorry. I didn't mean to just get all emotional like that and cry and stuff." I tell him.
He wraps his arm around my shoulder and I snuggle closer to him. "I understand your reason for it, though. Don't feel bad about it. I don't like seeing you cry, though, baby. I want to see you happy and to see that beautiful smile of yours."
"Even though I feel like a mess today?" I tell him, as I'm dressed in shorts with a sleeveless shirt, while he dressed in a grey shirt with shorts and his hair in a bun.
"You look beautiful, today." He says before kissing my cheek. "I don't want you to ever doubt how much I want you or care about you and I don't want you to ever doubt how much I want to be with you."
I smiled softly and looked over at my sister as she contently looked at what was on the television. "I know, baby. It was just my overthinking, that got the best of me. I hate when I do that."
"Don't beat yourself up about it." Roman says. "It's happened to me too, a few times. Can I take you out on a date next weekend? Just you and me on a romantic date."
"Romantic, huh?" I asked, looking up at him.
Roman nods and smiles. "Will you out with me next weekend?"
"I'd love to." I say, leaning up to give him a kiss. "You think the weather will hold long enough for us to take her to the Zoo?"
"It should." He says. "Did the weather channel say what time it was going to start raining, if it does?"
I think for a moment as I watch Kaia get up and walk over to us. She climbs up on the couch and then crawls into my lap. "I think they said early afternoon. We can check, just to make sure. If not, we can take her to the arcade or the museum."
"We could try the museum today and the Zoo tomorrow since the weather's supposed to be nicer, then." He suggests.
"That sounds good. We could go to lunch afterwards." I say. "You want to go to the museum today?"
Kaia nods when she looks up at me. "Is that where we went the last time with daddy?"
"Yeah, and you had a lot of fun, remember?" I asked.
"Okay. We go now?" She asks in her little voice.
"If you want." I tell her. "If not, we'll do something else."
"Museum." She says, looking up at me. "We go now?"
Roman chuckles. "We'll go in a little bit, okay?"
"Okay." She says before crawling back down and picking up one of her toys and occasionally playing with it, as she watches television.
"Thank you for coming." I say to Roman. "I know we had to wake up early to be here, but thank you."
"Anytime, baby." He tells me. "It gives me a chance to spend time with my girl and for Kaia to be more comfortable around me."
I touch his nose with mine. "I'm glad you're all mine, you know that?"
"I'm honored to be all yours." Roman says as he gives me a kiss. We both smile against each other's lips before pulling away. "And I'm glad you're all mine."
"Good." I say, playfully as we share another kiss.
A/N: How do you think Roman's talk with Cassandra's dad go? What about Cassandra feeling like she wasn't wanted? Is her over thinking about it to blame? What can Roman do to calm her fears about not being wanted? How do you think Roman and Cassandra's weekend is going to go with her little sister? Will they have a good time?